


Hear the Whispers Down the Hall (and she'll catch you when you fall)

by HungryLibrary



Series: Sparks and Stars Light the Way [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Don't worry, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, ends okay though, glimmer's always there for adora, whhy so suddenly the angst i dont know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-05 05:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16804819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HungryLibrary/pseuds/HungryLibrary
Summary: The night after their first training session is a bit rough on Adora, no thanks to a reminder that plenty of people in Bright Moon still have their doubts about the 'former' Horde soldier.Glimmer is there though. Even when Adora is too scared to ask her to be.





	Hear the Whispers Down the Hall (and she'll catch you when you fall)

Nights in the Castle of Bright Moon were always quiet, dead quiet, and more than a little unnerving.

Adora was getting used to them though. Getting used to sleeping even without the others camped in her room and going on patrols that wouldn’t take her past the mural of King Myca, just in in case Angella was visiting it again.

She’d been on one of those patrols when she’d lost track of where she was going and ended up here.

Here. Outside Glimmer’s room.

Like always.

“… this is stupid.” Her hand lifted towards the door. _“Stop it.”_ The hand pulled back.

Glimmer was probably already asleep by now. And it wasn’t like the worry buzzing around Adora’s head was anything major or urgent, just something she’d thought of and now couldn’t stop thinking about. If it was still bugging her by tomorrow, _that_ was when she should try asking Glimmer about it.

Maybe. If she still had the nerve to.

Sighing Adora turned and pressed her back to the painted wood, sliding slowly to sit on the floor.

The door felt good against her back. Frim and solid with the promise that Glimmer was just on the other side if she really needed her. Which she didn’t. Because Glimmer needed _sleep._

It wouldn’t hurt if she just stood watch for a bit though, right?

Just for a little while…

* * *

_Adora rounded the corner to her room, full to brim with Glimmer’s smile and Glimmer’s flashing eyes and still feeling like she was floating a good foot above the floor. She couldn’t wait until tomorrow-_

_“Horde solider.”_

_Good feelings vanished in a surge of adrenaline. Spinning she dipped into a crouch as her arms snapped up in a guard._

_The General of Bright Moon stared down at her, eyes narrowing above their scar._

_“Oh. Hi.”_

_Guiltily Adora let her arms fall._

_“Sorry about that, guess I’m kinda wound up from practice-”_

_“If you harm the princess.” Cut in the General, voice hard and sharp as the sword at their side._

_“If you try to use any training bout as an excuse for some ‘accident’ to occur, I assure you, the Queen will receive the news at the same time I present her with YOUR freshly. Severed. Head.”_

_Taking a step forward they used their greater height to loom over Adora._

_“Am I understood?”_

_Mouth dry and heart pounding- more from the implication that she might actually_ hurt _Glimmer than from the threat itself- Adora nodded silently._

_“Good.”_

_And just like that the General turned on their heel and strode back down the hall._

_In reality Adora had watched until they were out of sight, then slowly opened the door to her room and slipped inside, steps now heavy as lead._

_In her dream the door was locked and the castle went suddenly black._

_“Adora…”_

_Darkness swirled like living things. Tendrils crept their way gleefully down the walls, spilling out over the floor._

_“They feared me, Adora… And even after all you’ve done for them, they still fear you too…”_

_She stumbled back against solid stone and knew an instant of blinding panic. “No. You- You can’t be here. The Moonstone keeps you out of Bright Moon-”_

_“Did_ they _tell you that?” The hiss was a whisper in her ear. “And you_ believed _them?”_

_Adora whirled around, saw only blackness._

_“Oh my poor little lost soldier, always so desperate to believe in what you want to be true…”_

_“It is_ _true!”_

_Mystacor, Adora remembered. All of the doubt she’d seen in her friends, seen in Glimmer, had just been more lies. This was just the same. It had to be._

_“The general was just doing their job! I- I’m glad they’re still watching me. I’m glad Glimmer has people looking out for her.” That was true too, but- “And it doesn’t matter if some of them never trust me- Glimmer DOES! Glimmer and Bow, and Angella trusts She-Ra, and-”_

_“Does she really?”_

_Adora stopped. She knew, from the sinking in her gut, that the ‘she’ in question wasn’t the Queen. “Of course she does. Glimmer saved me at Theymor. She gave me the sword-”_

_“She would have died or been captured if she had not.”_

_“She stood up for me!” Swiping angrily at the darkness Adora tried uselessly to rip it apart._

_“She trusts me enough to sleep in the same room and even spar together! Glimmer has never lied to me, not like you! So when she says I’m safe here I believe her. And when she says she trusts me I KNOW that she does!”_

_“Oh?”_

_Mocking laughter filled the air._

_“Is that why you got rid of that inconsequential Horde symbol on your back? Because the princess_ trusted you _even when you were still wearing it?”_

_The laughter dripped into her lungs like water, like the shadows swallowing up the hall, filling her until she had no room to breathe._

_“Or did it ever make her flinch away?”_

_Adora sank to her knees, fighting for air that felt as thick as tar._

_“Was she ever frightened, ever horrified, when she looked at those blood-soaked wings and remembered EXACTLY who you really are?”_

_She shook her head… But the word ‘no’ wouldn’t come._

_“It’s time to face the truth, Adora.”_

_She was choking, drowning, falling on her knees- Watching in horror as her own shadow lifted up off the floor in front of her, it’s eyes burning red and terrifyingly familiar._

_“When she looks at you,_ this _is what the princess REALLY sees!”_

_Her shadow smiled._

_Too much hunger, too many teeth._

_It was laughing, Shadow Weaver’s laughter spilling from it’s peeled back lips as it reached down towards her, reaching down with clawed hands that would tear off her face and spill out the rest of her darkness until the whole world drowned in it-_

_She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t move or run or even scream-_

_“Adora?”_

_The hand was an inch from touching her-_

_“Adora, hey… It’s okay now, shhh…”_

_Something brushed her face._

_She flinched, but no claws sank in. The touch was soft and gentle, felt strangely soothing as it moved across her cheek and slipped further back, like someone tucking a strand of hair behind her ear._

_It felt, familiar. It felt like…_

“….Glimmer?”

Somewhere far away she thought she heard a relieved sigh.

_“I’m here, Adora. I’m right here.”_

_And then there was light._

* * *

Adora’s eyes snapped open.

She blinked, surprised that for once she hadn't woken up to the sting of fear-sweat.

This time the dream had ended before the worst part. Her shadow hadn’t had time to actually touch her, rip away her face and- It hadn’t, was the point. Something _else_ had though.

Or at least she thought it had. After that point the dream had faded to white and then blurred into dancing sparks, or maybe those had been ‘stars’ wheeling through the sky like how she’d remembered them at the First One’s temple with Razz. Had that only been a few months ago? It felt like years…

Shaking her head Adora breathed deep and soaked up the light of the room she was in, it’s airy openness and quiet.

This was safe. This was not the barracks, not in the Fright Zone period or anywhere else Shadow Weaver could ever reach her. 

It also wasn’t her room…. Or the hallway where she was pretty sure she’d fallen asleep. 

She was curled up on something soft, twenty times softer than the pallet she normally slept on, and there was a familiar crudely drawn target pasted to the wall across from her, peppered with arrow holes and cuts from what had probably been a knife.

The soft thing underneath her was mostly purple and judging from the angle fairly high up. The person cuddling against her back was-

Adora froze.

“…Glimmer?”

With a yelp the princess jerked awake behind her. 

“Training! I know, I know, I’m up. I’m-Hhhaaaa..”

Her yawn rushed across the back of Adora’s neck, amazingly warm and grounding after the nightmare, but Adora didn’t have time to enjoy it.

“No, uh, Glimmer-” She needed to escape! Or at least cover the fact that she’d somehow snuck into her friend’s bed again, this time while asleep and without meaning to.

“-it’s still really early. Go back to sleep. I’ll wake you up in a bit okay?”

“Hm? Mmm’kay.”

Glimmer hummed and burrowed back down happily, forehead butting between Adora’s tensed shoulder blades.

Letting out a breath Adora gave herself a second to relax too.

This was fine. This was okay. Waking Glimmer up yesterday had taken forever even when she was trying her hardest, which meant NOT waking up Glimmer should be no problem. Right? Right.

She counted to a hundred before starting the process of getting free, just to make sure.

Step one of extraction was simple. All she had to do was very gently, very carefully lift Glimmer’s arm off from where it was stubbornly curled around her waist, and…

“…You get that I’m still awake, right?”

“AAH!”

And then drop it again with a shriek.

“Sorry!” Panicking Adora held her hands up in front of her in the ‘don’t shoot’ pose they’d been taught in case of friendly fire. “I was just trying to leave without you realizing I was here, and I know that sounds bad but I swear I just didn’t want to bother you and I have NO idea how I got here in the first place-”

“No mystery there.” Glimmer broke in as she settled her arm back in place. “I teleported us both here last night.”

The whirlwind in Adora’s head came to a grinding halt. “You did?”

“Uh, yeah? I wasn’t just gonna leave you out there or let you wake up all alone in your room after finding you like that. And definitely NOT right after a nightmare that bad."

Oh. Well that wasn’t at all embarrassing now was it.

Flopping back against the giant cushion bed Adora sighed as she let herself go limp.

No matter what she did she always, always messed things up…

“Something’s bothering you.”

The arm at Adora’s waist gave a squeeze. It was the closest Glimmer could get to a hug when they were laying like this.

“You haven’t had one that bad in weeks. Want to talk about it? Or, um, maybe do another sleepover?”

“Yes- No!”

A headache begin to throb between Adora’s eyes. She shut them, hoping the darkness would help.

It didn’t.

“I don’t need a sleepover, I just…”

She could try to lie, she could brush it off as just being lonely again and Glimmer might believe it. Or she might pretend to believe it for Adora’s sake and spend the rest of the day wondering what she hadn’t been trusted enough to hear, worrying what Adora might be hiding.

The thought was sickening. Bright Moon’s guards were one thing, but if _Glimmer_ started feeling uneasy around her too-

“There was, something I thought of. Late last night.”

She forced the words out one by one and tried to ignore the anxious way her pulse picked up.

“Something I kinda wanted to ask you about it, or more like apologize, but then I remembered that needing rest and sleep is a thing, so.”

“Apologize?”

Glimmer sounded completely confused.

Then again Glimmer was the kind of person who really focused on the here-and-now over the past. Example, the fact that she was working to reform the Princess Alliance even after how it'd fallen apart last time. And the fact that she was currently snuggling up to someone wearing a Horde uniform.

Adora shifted uncomfortably. “Let me roll over? This is more of a face-to-face kind of talk.”

Glimmer loosened her arm and scooted back to give space. Adora twisted round, and then there she was, all messy hair and sparkles and puzzled rose pink eyes.

There’s was no two-ways about it, Glimmer was beyond cute. In fact she was downright-

“I’m sorry.”

Stopping that train of thought in its tracks Adora went straight to the point.

“About yesterday morning, jumping on you like that. I should have thought that one through more and then, you know. Not done it.”

Rose pink eyes blinked at her, still puzzled.

“Why?” Glimmer asked. “It worked, didn’t it? If anything I'm the one who should be sorry for being such a lazy grouch in the morning-”

“No you shouldn’t.” A knot of guilt twisted in Adora’s gut. “It was a stupid way for me to wake you up. If I’d been back in the Fright Zone and someone dressed as a _Princess_ tried to wake _me_ up like that, I’d have freaked out, thrown them across the room, and spent the next week sleeping with one eye open.”

She knew that for a fact because someone had actually done that once. _Once._ Catra always claimed the cracked ribs had been worth it.

Scratching awkwardly at the stubbly back of her undercut, Adora used the sting of nails on scalp to help push the memory away. Any extra guilt right now might just make her take a rolling dive out the window.

“Anyway, I’m sorry for that.” She repeated, pretty sure there was something better she could say and having zero clue what that thing might be. “It was stupid and I was stupid and I _won’t_ do it again, I promise.”

Words, outside of the formal briefings she’d been trained for, had never been a strong point of hers.

And apparently she’d gotten these ones wrong too because suddenly Glimmer was frowning.

“Adora-”

She said it differently from Shadow Weaver, soft not sharp, but Adora still felt her insides jump nervously.

“-I _don’t_ see a Horde soldier when I look at you anymore. That stopped before I even gave you back the sword.” Warm fingers brushed Adora’s hand as Glimmer reached out.

“You do know that… don't you?”

“Yeah!”

Adora put on her best most convincing grin.

“I know that, I just meant, when you’re half asleep-”

Glimmer huffed. “This is about that first time you slipped into my bed and I screamed and fell out of it when I woke up, isn’t it?”

Seemed like her best most convincing grin needed some work. “Nooo…”

That earned her a raised eyebrow. 

“…yeees.”

This time Glimmer’s huff trailed into a sigh. She shut her eyes for moment as she let it out, mouth twisting down at the corners.

“That _wasn’t_ your fault, okay?”

Adora didn’t believe it for a second but also didn’t want to argue the point.

“It was just-”

Pinching the bridge of her nose Glimmer’s scowled harder, apparently searching for words.

“Meeting you in the woods, the She-Ra and Frist Ones stuff, you running around all bright eyed wearing my cloak, the switch from happy festival time to another Horde attack- It all just felt like one really weird dream. A really _extremely_ weird dream. Then I woke up and saw the Horde symbol a foot away from me, and I just kinda had a moment of ‘holy shit that was all REAL’ and freaked out a little.”

Adora smiled weakly. “A little?”

Glimmer’s scowl melted into a rueful grin.

“A lot of a little. Also, if I’d really looked at you and thought ‘Horde soldier!’ I’d have jumped AT you, not away.”

Remembering back to the moment they met Adora had to admit that was a good the point.

“True.”

The truth was warmth and freeing. She felt it cupped between them as Glimmer reached out again and wove their fingers together, felt it rise up in her chest, mirroring the slow dawn outside the windows as the sun chased the last of the night's shadows away. 

And Adora knew she couldn't go full She-Ra without the Sword of Protection in hand but sometimes she wondered, in moments like these. How much of that burning gold light actually came from the Sword, how much of it had been born from that tiny spark Glimmer had shared with her back in Theymor- That tiny, fragile spark of light she could put so many names to. Bravery. Daring. Forgiveness. Trust.

_Hope._

She still didn't know if she'd ever stop second-guessing the people around her, waiting for the day she made one too many mistakes and they realized that she wasn't worth the trouble after all.

But Glimmer was still here. Even after getting another night of bad sleep thanks to Adora, she was still here, still looked honestly happy to _be_ here.

And that was one more spark Adora would try to cling to. 

"...Thank you."

In the morning light Glimmer's eyes looked impossibly soft. “And thank _you_ for being a grade A snuggle pillow. That was the best sleep I've had in ages- Once we actually got to sleep, I mean. I might have to steal you in the middle of the night more often.”

Adora laughed.

“If that's all it takes to repay you, then feel free to steal anytime."

“Seriously?” She nodded and Glimmer beamed so bright Adora would have sworn she actually sparkled. Then again, it _was_ Glimmer. “Then consider yourself stolen. Now-”

The soft smile took on a suddenly wicked shine.

“-do you have any idea what time it is?”

Adora had about half a second to start worrying about the question and the clear mischief in the princess’s eyes before it happened.

Glimmer pounced.

“It’s, TRAINING TIIIIME!”

“Oh sh-”

This time when the hanging bed flipped over it was only a last second teleport _(and Glimmer's arms wrapped around her, strong and steady)_ that saved them from crashing to the floor. It was another weird and silly morning together, and Adora couldn't help thinking that maybe, just maybe, someday she might actually get used to this.


End file.
